Athens Cultural Affairs Commission

In attendance: Montu, Jessica, Mark, Sally, Frances, Marissa, Jan. Staff: Stephanie, Tatiana. March Minutes – Marissa motioned to approve, Mark seconded. Unanimously approved. Chair’s Report –  Office Roles – Both chair and vice chair roles need to be filled. o Frances nominated Sally for chair. Marissa seconded. Unanimously approved. o Sally nominated Mark as Vice Chair. Marissa seconded. Unanimously approved.  Montu and Sally will be absent for the June meeting. We hope to have added members then to meet quorum in their absence. Staff Report –  There is a coalition of commissioners that have collected funds specifically for an art project on the East Side of Athens that we will help to facilitate. This group may be consulted to recommend additional funding sources, types of art, etc.  Didi Dunphy is retiring next month and we will be informally celebrating her retirement on Friday, June 14th at Hotel Indigo. The job will be posted soon to take over her role as director of the Lyndon House campus. There will not be an interim and Stephanie will keep things moving in her absence.  Montu and Marissa have not been able to access their email yet. Marissa still needs to complete BAC training.  New member call has closed. Frances, Mark, Jessica and Montu were the new member review committee. Tatiana will coordinate meeting times for the interviews.  Triangle Artworks is in the last stage as far as staff roles. The team has recommended rewriting the timeline so that classes will have better attendance by not being held during summer.  Public Art Master Plan is also in the final stages.  Project updates: o Poet Laureate reading took place at the April 16th Mayor and Commission meeting. She has created updated poetry recordings for the Dial a Poem line and IT will update those shortly.  SPLOST Project Updates: o One greenway mural has been delayed because of GDOT permitting issue. We hope to have this done by the end of summer. o The other greenway mural was slated to be installed in May but there is now maintenance scheduled for the area that will push installation to later this summer. o One firefly trail sculpture is in phase 2 and moving right along. o The second firefly trail sculpture requires discussion and vote. The original intention was to use pieces of the trestle bridge for the project. The artist has proposed an updated design to remove some of the bridge materials due to increased labor needed to reuse the materials.  Group discussion - Some of the elements that were removed (bridge reuse, second lighted insect, seating element) were selling points in the selection  panel. Staff recommends moving forward because the sculpture still serves the purpose of being a noticeable marker for the start of the trail.  Marissa motioned to accept the revised proposal. Mark seconded. Unanimously approved. o The material used in building for the original site for the Classic Center Arena Mural cannot be painted without voiding the warranty, so a new site must be selected. The proposed new site is the parking deck facing the Arena Plaza. The artist has created a mockup of the proposed design on the proposed site. The new façade will result in more square footage and would require a $10,000 increase which would come out of existing public art funds. Staff seeks a recommendation on how to move forward.  Group discussion: The artist will paint directly onto the brick/stone of the parking deck structure. The other pieces of the deck will be kept neutral. If we choose not to increase the budget, the piece would be restricted to just one tower instead of the full façade.  Frances motioned to expand the budget by $10,000 to expand the scope of the painting. Mark seconded. Unanimously approved. o The Arena sculpture is in phase 2 and is projected to be installed by the end of the summer.  Community Outreach: o New inductees for the Walk of Fame will be announced soon. They will be announced on stage at AthFest and installed in late summer/early fall.  We may plan to table again on Friday night at AthFest. The bubbles were a hit last year! o Other tabling opportunities – Tatiana will send dates requests for volunteers to see if we are able to staff the tables enough to attend.  Pride Resource Fair June 1, 3-6  Hot Corner Festival June 8th  Juneteenth on June 15th o The committee met and discussed ideas for how the outreach committee can be most effective to support the mission of the commission.  Does staff have any specific needs that the commission can help with from an outreach perspective that goes beyond tabling?  Demystifying the process of public art to our community members  Recruiting for selection panels – helping community members understand the need for diversity on panels and the opportunity to participate in the process  Helping artists understand the public art process and the importance of engaging with the ACAC and staff  Is digital promotion/providing content something the committee can help with or is it exclusively staff run?  Pages likely have to be staff-run due to policy but staff would welcome photos and content from the commission.  Are there additional ways that we could piggyback on Leisure Services events (similar to the lantern parade, but smaller scale/more accessible)?   Staff is very open to ideas to get more people engaged!  Leisure Services does four major events: 4th of July, Lantern Parade, Holiday Parade, and a Fall event (not yet confirmed for this year) so we could possibly consider adding an element to some of these events.  What has worked well or not worked in terms of outreach in the past?  Surveys typically do not get a great response. If we do choose to issue a survey, the shorter the better.  Anytime you do any kind of outreach try to collect emails to add to our mailing list to get more people in the know. If we have a tablet/computer, people can register directly at events. We have an arts division iPad that could be used for this purpose.  Networking and personal invitations work well – word of mouth/grass roots advertising  Are there any updates on the Arts and Community Awards?  They would need contracts, insurance, etc. so it is not feasible to accomplish within a fiscal year. The way it operated in the past is not feasible any longer. Lantern Parade and Triangle Artworks are intended to fill this gap.  Can the commission organize events (Example: Performances by musicians on the Music Walk of Fame)?  Not allowed to have ticketed events at local venues due to policy.  Events that are on public property and free to the public could be discussed.  Staff is interested in discussing a Music Walk of Fame event in further detail. Committee would need to bring a proposal including needs and suggested dates.  To what degree can we discuss ideas via email?  Discussions can be had, but no votes can be held via email. Staff encourages commission to bring as much to meetings as possible so that it can be discussed as a full group.  Discuss ideas, but don’t make decisions.  Community Outreach Committee meets on the Monday 2 weeks after the regular commission meeting each month.  If the committee has items to add to the monthly meeting agenda, they can be sent to Tatiana prior to the meeting  Misc: o Downtown Call for Art for Art Decko Project has gone out for 8 panels. One panel will be a community project panel created at the Fox Said Festival held at the Cotton Press on July 27th. o Montu has an event on 5/14 7:30 at Morton Theatre – From Opera to HipHop  Josh Stewart, Life, other artists will be there o 5/15 is the final installment of Art Works with Willow Tracy, social hour at 5:30 and presentation at 6:00 o 2nd Annual Art Fair at the Atheneum on June 22nd, 11-4 hosted by Lamar Dodd Mark motioned to adjourn. Frances seconded. Unanimously approved .